Melinda Clynes has worked as a freelance writer for 25 years, providing communications/editorial expertise for organizations. She also writes and edits features and loves both the business and journalism aspects of her work, as each brings different challenges and rewards. She likes having many plates in the air, so being a freelancer suits her well.

Her for-profit and nonprofit portfolio includes web content, newsletters, brochures, video scripts, leader profiles, development materials, press releases, and annual reports. Current and past clients include a host of companies, from public relations agencies to land conservancies to graphic design firms to staffing firms and food banks.

Education

Michigan State University

Concentrations were in copy writing and market research

Eastern Michigan University

Concentrated in technical writing and business communications

Non Profit

500 Projects Completed

Melinda Clynes has made a career in telling the stories of people and places that have been helped by nonprofit agencies. Through these stories, she helps constituents, prospective clients, policy makers and grant makers learn about the important work being done on the ground to make the world a better place. Her nonprofit clients have included Art Road, National Bone Marrow Transplant Link, Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan, JARC, Michigan’s Children, MotorCities National Heritage Area, Starfish Family Services, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Cranbrook Educational Community & Cranbrook Schools, Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, and many others.

Travel

100 Projects Completed

On her first travel writing foray in 1998, Melinda Clynes boarded a LOT Polish Airlines’ inaugural non-stop flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Krakow, Poland, where a cab driver greeted her with a shot of vodka, a black-toothed grin, and not a word of English. She was hooked. Since then, she’s traveled and written about Holy Week processions in Malaga, Spain; beaches and microbrews along Lake Michigan; New Zealand’s rainforest hiking treks; a sleepless night at a Quebec ice hotel; language learning along northern Spain’s Camino de Santiago; off-beat Toronto; an opera tailgate party in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and many other experiences and locales.

Staffing

100 Projects Completed

Melinda Clynes spent a year learning about the staffing industry as a contractual writer with the 17th largest staffing firm in the United States. She wrote case studies and blogs for Staffing Industry Analysts; created informational materials for the annual meeting and 25th anniversary events; interviewed staff experts for internal newsletter articles, employee learning materials and award nominations; and edited RFPs and other corporate communications. The company she worked with had a large veteran hiring program; one of Melinda's biggest projects was to create a full-color coffee table book honoring the company's veterans and showcasing its veteran program. She also interviewed all of the company's executive leadership staff and generated new, more personal biographies.

Article

150 Projects Completed

Melinda Clynes has written feature articles for a number of publications, including Trips Magazine, Detroit Free Press, Miami Herald, Outside, Metro Times, Automotive Executive Magazine, PINK, Cooking Light, Denver Post, Journey Magazine, Walking, and The Rotarian, as well as online weekly e-magazines, including Model D, Metromode, Mode Shift and Rapid Growth. She also writes articles for corporate newsletters and e-newsletters, editorial pieces for client publications and magazines, and blog posts for a variety of professionals. As a long-time researcher and explorer, she’s touched on a myriad of topics, from beer and travel, to social justice and food system equity, to business strategies and practices. Melinda is a generalist at heart, craving knowledge and forever curious about life’s nuts and bolts.

Newsletter Content

80 Projects Completed

Melinda Clynes savors the entire process of writing articles for newsletters, from creating provocative questions, to conducting interviews, to scripting the final story. She has done this work in both for-profit and nonprofit industries. Her job experience prior to freelancing involved working in and leading communications departments at nonprofits, where newsletters and e-newsletters were key tools in telling compelling stories. Companies where Melinda has contributed newsletter stories and/or created the newsletter from scratch (content, photography, design and printing) include: AAA of Southern New England, Dupont/Kevlar, Adventures in Rock, Rotary International, National Automotive Dealers Association, Strategic Staffing Solutions, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan, Bidlack Creative Group, Hispanic Business Alliance, Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, and Starfish Family Services.

Web Page

50 Projects Completed

Melinda Clynes has written web copy for a range of organizations, including a national vision benefits company, an education-based nonprofit for girls and women, and a web development company. For three years, she was project editor of Michigan Nightlight, an online news and information publication that covered the people, projects and programs making a difference in the lives of vulnerable children in Michigan. As such, she contributed content, from leader and program profiles to extensive special reports, along with managing a team of writers and a rigorous weekly publication schedule. She currently edits a food and fitness coalition’s blog-based site and contributes web copy to a variety of websites, often working with web designers and their clients.